Tax and Its Relationship to Slavery

On Monday Professor Robin Einhorn of U.C. Berkeley gave a talk at my school about her recent book, American Taxation, American Slavery. Professor Einhorn’s book challenges some of the stories about the American aversion to taxation. As her essay “Tax Evasion and the Legacy of American Slavery” argues, the distrust of taxation has “more to do with protections for entrenched wealth than with promises of opportunity, and more to do with the demands of privileged elites than with the strivings of the common man.” The topic is provocative. The political history Prof. Einhorn sets forth shows how the institution of slavery influenced the Articles of Confederation, later state constitutions, and tax policies. Tax reveals the problem because of the fear that slavery could be taxed out of existence. If controversy tempts you to an area, this book may be for you as it has generated some debates within the legal history world. On a final note the topic reminds me of Jack Chin and Randy Wagner’s paper, The Tyranny of the Minority: Jim Crow and the Counter-Majoritarian Difficulty which is also a fascinating read.